Thanks. Well, I think I'll let you take a breath and complete my Syria image folder tomorrow, didn't realize how lengthy it was. I have two-posts worth more in reserve. Those are my personal images from 19 years ago. It kinda hurt to think that most of those places don't exist anymore.
Won't Cyrrena be surprised . And I was about to say your a slave driver lol . After your done with your fascinating trip I still have something like 2 days of Malta left .
Hey, I'm a slave driver you know! And seems you are too if you still had 2 days! I wrote to Cyrenna apologizing for spamming the thread, I kind of got way too driven there *blush* And to think that's why I never followed this thread: too much content everyday (I browsed when I had enough time, but by the time I was caught up, I had several more pages to go through and never participated)... And now I'm here, doing the same *hides in a corner*
No don't worry about it I think we both made Cyrrenas life easier And did you notice how different the 2 places are we went to ? I love it , and I think we would have had to skip a lot of this if it was not for us . And no your not a slave driver Cyrrena usually packs our days with a week or 2 worth of sight seeing and food . And I am so happy your on our trip with us <3. there are 359 churches in Malta .
yes, it's highly interesting to see the differences, especially if you think that Malta is midway between Crete, Cyclades islands and Syria. Malta churches look a lot like the Maronite churches in Syria but that's about all. It looks more typical European than the rest. Even when you remove the "Porte des Bombes" which, as expected, is a French Parisian style (saw the image and thought "would fit nicely in Paris" and then saw the french name).
WOW!!!! Outstanding trips, both of you!!!! If you have 2 more days Schmet, that will give me until Monday to get some trips written in advance!!! That will make my life much easier. I cannot thank both of you enough for helping me out here and doing such an AB FAB job!!!
ooh, she's not mad at me! yay! *does the happy dance* What do we do then Schmett? I conclude Syria tomorrow now that I interrupted your trip anyway (thought you were done, sorry... Tinkerfest got in the way for both of us) and you do Sunday? I don't know what you have planned as far as countries go, but here's my personal RL road trips: I did go to Greece (4 times, once Cyclades, one time Greece + Crete, once Greece alone, and once Greece alone with my Ancient Greek class in school, never went to Peloponnese outside of Corynth though). I also went to Italy twice along the way and once around Parma, and Catalogna in north of Spain and I'm French, so obviously, I can run South of France and Paris trips. Went once to Vienna in Austria and I'll leave Germany to Schmett (only went to Heidelberg). So if you need me to fill in while touring Europa, don't hesitate to ask for those countries (I just don't know very well waterparks and stuff like that, our vacations were always of the serious ("slave-driving") type.
don't forget you could do France Whilhelmina . Europe has the most to look at , I went to the former Yugoslavia for years for at least 4 weeks every year , I went to Majorca one of the Balearic islands , another target in the Mediterranean's . And my main destination for the Spring trip , to see the tulips in the Netherlands . To tell you the truth I am only very familiar with the south of Germany and dome more in the middle or to the east . But I can give you a week worth of things to do in Munich alone . ooooh Cyrrena your back , almost missed you standing over there with a smile on your face .
Good day Road Tripers/Slaves!!! Today we're going to complete our time capsule trip of Syria! I hope you took the time to rest, got steamed in a hammam and are ready to roam the country once more! We're going to start with on of the most beautiful Greek and Roman city around, Apamea. One of the main feature of the place is the Great Colonnade which ran for 2km (1.2 mi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apamea,_Syria After the long walk along the colonnade, we're going to rest in Hama. The city is best known for its seventeen noria, dating back from 1100 BC. They were used for irrigation purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama We'll continue westbound until we reach the Masyaf Castle. This was the place where Rashid ad-Din Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountain, ruled the Nizari Isma'ili sect, also known as the Assassins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masyaf_Castle West again, we'll make a long stop at the Krak des Chevaliers. After seeing Ocarinah struggle to pronounce french in one of her videos, I'm linking you a pronunciation site so you know how to say "chevalier": https://forvo.com/word/chevalier/#fr The "krak of the knights" is one of the biggest medieval castle in the world. Constructed during the 12th century, it was the center of administration for the Knights Hospitaliers and hosted a garrison of 2000. I must say that I really fell in love with the place, it is truly amazing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers Entrance above the stables Stables Killing ground between the two walls Tower Square tower Chapel Hall of the Knights (outside and inside) Moat seen from the Grand Master's tower Inner ward seen from the King's Daughter tower
We're now going all the way west to Tartus. This area is the old Alawite state (Shia sect). In the old city, one can find some remains from the Crusader era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartus The most important remain that can be seen is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa which is a fortified church during the crusades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Our_Lady_of_Tortosa And as we're by the sea, we might want to dip our toes in the Mediterranean, heh? We're now going to the most christian area of Syria, Maaloula with the convent of Saint Thecla (Mar Taqla). The story says that Thecla was living in a cave in Maaloula, performing miracles. When her persecutors came to get her, she called to God and a passage opened in the cave and closed behind her. Third image is said passage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent_of_St._Thecla_(Maaloula) Our next stop is Mar Musa, the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, a fortified monastery from the Syria Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Saint_Moses_the_Abyssinian Our last stop will be the "couvent Saint-Jacques" which I had a lot of troubles finding as it turn's out it's not "Jack" but "James" in English. This is the Monastery of Saint James the Mutilated. It was a very interesting place as it hosted christian monks and nuns from various christian faith. I was pretty certain that they had been obliterated during the war like the Mar Taqla nuns, but it turned out they were saved by the Hezbollah. https://www.maryakub.net/ Our trip is complete! We're going back to Damascus to take a walk in the souk and rest a bit before taking our time capsule back. House in the Christian Quarter Al-Hamidiyah Souq A luthier at work And we're done! I hope you liked that trip back in time as much as I did! I'll let you rest a bit after this slave drive, then we'll hop into our time capsule and flow back to Malta in spring 2020!
Gorges do I need to say anything else ? Fabulous , Beautiful , Outstanding ,Exceptionnelle , Belle , Fabuleux , Enchanting , Charming , Ravishing , Lovely , Delightful , Wunderbar , Enchanteur , Ravissant , Merveilleux , Wonderful , Meraviglioso , Subarashi , Underbar , Jingcai , Ka nani , Chudesno , Maravilhoso , Maravilloso , Rayie , Ihana , Geweldig Formidable , Nani , Mirum . Ok enough praise even so you really earn it . Now to work on my part , this might be more than I bargained for , I found a load more to see . To begin with I made a mistake with the city , I went to 4 different cities instead of only Vallentte , but the links show where each of the destinations are . There are 3 cities close by to Vallentte that you can get to by using an elevator , and some of those cities are located on smaller islands within the same bay . And you know we had to put ttobey into shackles at times , because he would try to blow us up , send us into space , or feed us to his pet oktogorgon ( octopus ) , and than blame it on Breanna .
Looks like its hot and dry. So, Gero has some 4 and 8 people little floater runabouts. They contain water and snacks, and can go up 100 meters above ground. In that case, I suggested using the 5-point belt system so you don't fall out. There are about 15 of them available, and about 30 single person versions. They could be mistaken for flying carpets, with seats and a bubble top to prevent sunburn.
Ah, that might be nice indeed! It's hot and dry, sure! Especially in the dead of summer. The area east of Damascus while crossing to the Euphrates was quite fun: straight road for hundred of kilometers with some petrol plants along the way, and then, you stumble upon a crossroad with signposts like "Irak, 300 km". Nothing in-between.
never trust a rat! dev! And thanks for the praises. I realized that I was sitting on a gold mine of pictures from places that were damaged since and that I should share some of them with you all.
My parents were driving out in New Mexico back in the early 1960s. Route 66 was still there. As we drove out of Albaquerque heading west, fewer and fewer lights. We drove at night due to suggestions from our Triple A road map. Only lights we saw for 8 hours was one house several miles north of the highway. One. Not several lights in a house, just one light off in the distance. Two cars, one coming eastwards, and one early on that had been up ahead of us. I think they decided to speed up. Never saw them again. There were a few dirt roads going off the highway, then even that stopped. A small bit of moon. And a large number of stars. The stars were so bright, I felt I could reach out and touch them. About 100 or so miles. I wasn't scared. But it sure was lonely looking.
we went on a trip on highway 50 " the loneliest highway " in the US and we saw one car coming at us . My son thought that if he would lie down on the road he would be more likely to die of hunger and thirst than from getting run over .
map of Malta : https://www.google.com/maps/place/Malta/@35.9421244,14.098163,112009m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x130e45281d8647c5:0xf582d86136be4239!8m2!3d35.937496!4d14.375416 The cities , towns and villages of Malta : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valletta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senglea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cospicua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliema https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_Bay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Julian%27s,_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_Gozo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsaxlokk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellie%C4%A7a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBabbar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luqa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBebbu%C4%A1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qawra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bu%C4%A1ibba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalkara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBejtun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkirkara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarxien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floriana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_%C4%A0wann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxxar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamrun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qormi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fgura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C4%A1%C4%A1iewi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsaskala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cittadella_(Gozo) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir%C5%BCebbu%C4%A1a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C5%BCira https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabat,_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paceville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBurrieq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swieqi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Lawrenz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Msida https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke,_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsa,_Malta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xewkija https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lija https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana,_Gozo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Venera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qrendi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xag%C4%A7ra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlendi Prehistoric building sites : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta I went ahead and rented a whole apartment building , because we will move here for the next 2 years .
Here we go again The Island of Gozo : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gozo Dwejra Inland Sea : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Sea,_Gozo Blue Hole and Azure Window : https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-azure-window-and-the-blue-hole-san-lawrenz-malta https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-azure-window-and-the-blue-hole-san-lawrenz-malta Wied il -Mielah Window : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wied_il-Miela%C4%A7_Window The Blue Lagoon : Just a fifteen minutes boat ride across the water from Mgarr Harbour - is one of the best swimming spots in Malta. Ramla Beach : Fungus Rock , Dwejra Bay Wied il - Ghasri : Scenic valley leading to sea from the village of Ghasri : Cominotto :
Gozo 2 Salt Pans : Harvest your own sea salt . Xlendi Bay : Dahlet Qorrot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C4%A7let_Qorrot Tal-Mixta Cave , Ramala Bay : Ta' Cenc Cliffs : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%27_%C4%8Aen%C4%8B_Cliffs Ta' Kola Windmill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%27_Kola_Windmill Ninu's Cave : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninu%27s_Cave Xerri's Grotto : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerri%27s_Grotto Tas - Salvatur Hill :
